Sikkim Became India's 22nd State in 1975 After a Poll Counted 59,637 to 1,496, Following a 1950 Treaty and Two Constitutional Amendments

Sikkim became India’s 22nd state under the Constitution (Thirty-sixth Amendment) Act, 1975, which is dated 16 May 1975 and treats 26 April 1975 as its first day. What came just before it was a special poll on 14 April 1975, counted at 59,637 votes for and 1,496 against an Assembly resolution that abolished the office of the Chogyal, Sikkim’s hereditary ruler.

The count is printed in the Sikkim Darbar Gazette. What it amounted to is still argued by Beijing, by Indian writers and by an Indian intelligence officer who took part, and each is quoted by name after the documents.

A kingdom since 1642, a protectorate since 1950

The Namgyal dynasty dates its rule from 1642, when Tibetan monks anointed Phuntsog Namgyal at Yuksom as the first Chogyal, a title the Ministry of Tourism’s page describes as “temporal and religious king”. India’s Supreme Court, in a 2023 judgment, recounts that Britain and China signed a convention in 1890 to settle the Sikkim and Tibet boundary, and that China thereby recognised British control over Sikkim.

When British rule in India ended in 1947, Sikkim did not sign an Instrument of Accession as most princely states did, a process covered in our article on Sardar Patel and the princely states. The history the petitioners set out in that 2023 judgment says Sikkim signed a standstill agreement instead, a pact that kept existing arrangements running until a fresh one was made.

Inside Sikkim, three local groups formed the Sikkim State Congress at Gangtok on 7 December 1947. A. C. Sinha, writing for Japan’s Institute of Developing Economies, says its demands were the abolition of landlordism, an interim government and accession to India. On 1 May 1949 its supporters surrounded the palace, more than ten thousand of them in Sinha’s count and 5,000 in GBS Sidhu’s. A popular ministry under Tashi Tshering followed. On 6 June 1949 the Political Officer, Harishwar Dayal, dismissed it in the name of the Government of India and ran the administration himself, Sinha writes.

The treaty signed at Gangtok on 5 December 1950 by Dayal and Maharaja Tashi Namgyal then fixed the terms. Under Article II Sikkim “shall continue to be a Protectorate of India” and enjoy “autonomy in regard to its internal affairs”. India took responsibility for defence and territorial integrity, with the right to station troops anywhere in the state (Article III), sole conduct of external relations, political, economic and financial (Article IV), and the exclusive right to build and run railways, aerodromes, posts, telegraphs, telephones and wireless (Article VI). It paid Sikkim Rs 3 lakh (300,000 rupees) a year (Article X), and any dispute over the treaty’s meaning went to the Chief Justice of India (Article XII).

Indian divisions held Sikkim’s border with Tibet in the years that followed, and the 1967 fighting at Nathu La is told in our article on that clash.

The 1973 unrest and the eleven clauses of 8 May

In April 1973 demonstrators threatened to storm the palace in Gangtok, TIME reported in 1975, and the Chogyal asked Indian troops to help control them. The grievance was the parity system for Council seats. Sinha says it gave the Lepcha and Bhutia minority, about a quarter of the population, six elected seats and the Nepali-origin majority, about three quarters, six more. A US State Department briefing of 7 September 1974 says a campaign by the Chogyal for greater independence ended when communal riots broke out in April 1973.

The agreement signed at Gangtok on 8 May 1973 has eleven numbered clauses. Foreign Secretary Kewal Singh signed for India, Palden Thondup Namgyal for himself, and leaders of the Sikkim Janata Congress, Sikkim National Congress and Sikkim National Party for the parties. It promises a “fully responsible Government”, elections on the principle of one man one vote, and an Assembly elected every four years under the supervision of a representative of the Election Commission of India.

The Assembly could not discuss the Chogyal or his family, cases before the courts, or India’s responsibilities under the agreement. A Chief Executive would head the administration, appointed by the Chogyal “on the nomination of the Government of India”. A disagreement between the Chogyal and the Chief Executive went to the Political Officer, who would take the Government of India’s advice, “which shall be binding”. The palace and the Sikkim Guards stayed under the Chogyal, and clause 11 repeats that India is solely responsible for defence, territorial integrity and external relations.

1974: an election, a Government of Sikkim Act and “associated” status

Elections in April 1974, supervised by the Election Commission of India, filled a 32 seat Assembly. Kazi Lhendup Dorji’s party won 31 seats in the counts of Sinha and Sidhu, while TIME reported 30. The Assembly met on 11 May 1974 and, in the words of the Government of Sikkim Act’s preamble, expressed a unanimous desire for responsible government and “further strengthening its close relationship with India”. Sidhu says it passed resolutions that day seeking closer ties with India and a share in Indian institutions.

The gazette says the Assembly passed the Government of Sikkim Bill on 3 July 1974. The Chogyal assented on 4 July and the Act was notified on 6 July. It kept his precedence and personal privileges, and it put executive action in his name. The US briefing says he signed reluctantly, and Sidhu writes that the Assembly passed the bill despite his objections.

The Constitution (Thirty-fifth Amendment) Act came next. Swaran Singh signed its Statement of Objects on 30 August 1974, and the US briefing says Parliament passed it on 5 September. The Act carries the President’s assent of 22 February 1975. New Article 2A said Sikkim “shall be associated with the Union”. A new Tenth Schedule made India “solely responsible for the defence and territorial integrity of Sikkim” and its external relations, gave Sikkim one seat in each House of Parliament, and said those responsibilities “shall not be enforceable by any court”.

The same US briefing records Swaran Singh telling Parliament that the new relationship could continue with or without the Chogyal’s office, and calling it “a political matter and not a question of legal niceties”.

10 to 14 April 1975: the resolution, the guards and the poll

On 10 April 1975 the Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution that, per the Statement of Objects and Reasons, noted the Chogyal’s “persistent harmful activities” against the government set up under the 1973 agreement and the 1974 Act. It resolved that “the institution of the Chogyal is hereby abolished and Sikkim shall henceforth be a constituent unit of India”. A second resolution sent the first to the people.

The Indian Army disarmed the Chogyal’s guards before the vote, and accounts disagree on the day. Nepali Times, in 2001, put it on the morning of 6 April, with a 19 year old guard, Basanta Kumar Chhetri, shot dead and 243 guards overcome by a force it put at 5,000. Sunaina Kumar, writing in Fifty Two in 2020, gives 9 April at 12.45 pm, and the British Library catalogues a telex from the Chogyal to Indira Gandhi about “the sudden attack of the Sikkim Guards by the Indian Army” under 9 April. Sidhu says the guards were disarmed the day before the poll. TIME reported on 5 May 1975 that the Chogyal was under house arrest and that police had taken his ham radio on the ground that he had no licence. Sidhu says R&AW had his ham radio frequencies jammed so he could not make public appeals.

The poll on 14 April was run by the Additional Election Commissioner of Sikkim, D. C. Lucksom. His notice of 15 April gives 59,637 votes for, 1,496 against and 61,133 polled. The Statement of Objects puts the electorate at about 97,000, which makes the turnout about 63 per cent by our arithmetic. TIME called the margin “suspiciously top-heavy”.

Parliament and the appointed day of 26 April

The Statement of Objects for the amendment bill is dated 19 April 1975 and signed by Y. B. Chavan. It says the Chief Minister of Sikkim passed on the result on 15 April and “strongly requested” an immediate response, and that Sikkim’s ministers came to New Delhi on 16 and 17 April. The bill was introduced as the Constitution (Thirty-eighth Amendment) Bill and enacted as the Thirty-sixth Amendment Act. TIME judged that there was little debate and reported that one opponent charged Chavan with behaving like “a very apt pupil of the British”.

The Act entered Sikkim as entry 22 in the First Schedule of the Constitution, removed Article 2A and the Tenth Schedule, and inserted Article 371F. Its commencement clause deems it in force from the day the Council of States passed the bill. The Supreme Court’s 2023 judgment gives that day as 26 April 1975, the “appointed day”. Article 371F validates what was done between that day and the President’s assent, and the Act itself is dated 16 May. On 16 May Governor B. B. Lal appointed Kazi Lhendup Dorji Chief Minister, according to the Sikkim Darbar Gazette of that day.

Article 371F deems the 32 members elected in April 1974 to be the state’s Assembly and gives the Governor a special responsibility for peace and for the advancement of different sections of the population. Its clause (m) bars every court, the Supreme Court included, from hearing disputes arising out of treaties and agreements on Sikkim made before the appointed day, though the President’s power to seek an advisory opinion under Article 143 stays.

Beijing, the Chogyal and Indian writers

China objected first. A People’s Daily article of 3 September 1974 called India’s moves to make Sikkim an associate state the “annexation of Sikkim”, according to the US briefing. On 11 September the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it “absolutely does not recognize India’s illegal annexation of Sikkim”, in the words a US consulate telegram reported. The statement also blamed the Soviet Union as the “boss behind the scene”.

China’s position shifted later. The Tribune reported from Beijing in May 2004 that the foreign ministry’s yearbook no longer showed Sikkim as an independent country, and that in October 2003 the ministry had taken Sikkim off its website, where it had been listed as one. On 20 April 2005 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Lok Sabha that Premier Wen Jiabao had said China regarded Sikkim as an “inalienable part of India”, and that the joint statement refers to the “Sikkim State of the Republic of India”.

The Chogyal’s side survives mostly in summaries. Sidhu says he rejected a 1972 offer of “permanent association” because his lawyers advised that it would leave Sikkim worse off than the 1950 treaty. The British Library’s catalogue of his palace papers lists his 1975 telexes and letters to Indira Gandhi, Y. B. Chavan and Indian officials, among them a telex of 8 April on the Government of India’s “harsh administration in Sikkim”, a telex of 18 April on All India Radio’s broadcast about the abolition of his office, and letters of 19 to 24 April about his house arrest. The catalogue gives one line per item and does not transcribe the texts. TIME quoted his wife, Hope Namgyal, who had gone to Manhattan after the 1973 unrest, saying she was “gravely concerned about the safety of the Chogyal”. The US briefing of 1974 says India would defend the change by arguing that Sikkim was not sovereign and that the new status answered the Assembly’s own request.

Sunanda K. Datta-Ray wrote Smash and Grab, a book on the annexation that Fifty Two dates to 1984. At a Gangtok lecture reported on 23 May 2026 he repeated his position. “It was more of an annexation than a merger,” he said, adding that he never saw concrete evidence that the Chogyal posed a danger to India, and that the Government of India never produced such evidence in public.

Sidhu, who says Kao assigned him the Sikkim operation in 1973, gives the other account. He writes that Indira Gandhi asked R&AW chief R. N. Kao “Can you do something about this?” after seeing a letter in which the Chogyal used the title “His Majesty”, and that she agreed to an operation that “could go all the way to merger, provided it had public support”. Nepali Times quotes India’s Chief Executive in Gangtok, a post Sidhu says B. S. Das held, as writing, “Sikkim’s merger was necessary for Indian national interest. And we worked to that end.”

Sikkim in 2023 and 2026

On 13 January 2023 the Supreme Court, in a judgment by Justice M. R. Shah with a separate opinion by Justice B. V. Nagarathna, ruled on a tax exemption for “Sikkimese”. It struck down the exclusion of Indians who had settled in Sikkim before 26 April 1975 but were never entered in the 1961 Sikkim Subjects register, and struck down a proviso that removed the exemption from Sikkimese women who marry non-Sikkimese. The judgment recalls that a Home Department notification of 21 June 1975 deemed Sikkim Subjects registered before that date to be Indian citizens.

The Press Information Bureau’s explainer of 16 May 2023, Sikkim Statehood Day, says the state Assembly resolved on 24 February 2003 to become a “total organic State”, the Sikkim Organic Mission began in 2010, all farmland was certified organic in 2015, and Sikkim was formally declared 100 per cent organic in 2016.

On 28 April 2026 the Prime Minister closed the state’s 50th year of statehood celebrations at Paljor Stadium in Gangtok. The Press Information Bureau reported him saying, “Sikkim declared itself a fully organic state in 2016, setting an example for the nation.”